show us your personal sporty runabouts [Archive]

Ghost 2501

Jul 31, 2005, 06:28 PM

in the world of RC boats, there are all types of scale boats to model, ya know, warships, cargo ships, tugs, liners etc, but what about the small powered watercraft, the little outboard powered speed boats to the luxury cruisers found in marinas the world over, the sunseekers, chris-craft's, aquarama's and fairlines etc,

So c'mon, lets have a look at what you have created :)

Also what, if any, modifications you have done to them

Kmot

Aug 01, 2005, 10:52 AM

Here is mine. A Kyosho Stream Liner (Chris Craft wannabe) which I added gasoline engine sound system; a 550 motor from an E-Maxx; an Mtronics esc; a third servo to activate the "beep-beep" horn; a 9-volt battery to power the sound system; an additional speaker to the sound system; and I added a driver made from the Croc Hunter guy and some accessories like beer cans; chips; fishing pole; tackle box; etc.

http://www.fototime.com/inv/C90282C790C5171

Ghost 2501

Aug 01, 2005, 11:14 AM

looks good, a guy in the PMBC uses a twin engine chris craft as a bouy placer and rescue boat, powered bu 2x 700 series motors and it SHIFTS, the ken model out of barbie has a moving head and arm, so it waves to bystanders. he also has the spicegirls dolls fited out with waterskis, and sometimes pulls them round. the model is 3/4 the size of my najade.

any pics of her on the water?

Kmot

Aug 01, 2005, 04:45 PM

Thanks. All I have of in the water pics is a movie I made before all the extras were added:

http://www.fototime.com/978A5FD37E8AC8F/orig.wmv

Ghost 2501

Aug 01, 2005, 05:41 PM

it planes well :) keeps level as well :)

c'mon peoples, there have to be more pleasure craft models out there!

Ghost 2501

Nov 25, 2005, 05:38 PM

well an update on the najade kit, she now has 12v ni-cad power, as well as a back up set of 9.6's. so she should really shift now

Jim Duda

Nov 25, 2005, 08:34 PM

I have listed ALL the modifications I've made to this RTR clone of the Chris-Craft 19 foot barrel back in 1/8 scale...see this thread

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=405338

Ghost 2501

Nov 26, 2005, 06:04 PM

looks sweet :) those older 1950s era boats just have a class all of their own, and it also planes well on the water.

:)

bluesy

Nov 26, 2005, 07:29 PM

here's my Billing boats "White Star".

named her after our grand-daughter Logan hence "Loganberry".

Ghost 2501

Nov 27, 2005, 01:42 PM

how well does the white star do in steering competitions??? looks sweet :)

bluesy

Nov 27, 2005, 03:01 PM

Ghost...

I've never had her (or any other boat) in a competition but I've tried her aout around a few buoys and docks at our pond and she does just fine. Tons of control forward and enough in reverse to be able to back into a mooring slip without wrecking her transom or scaring off the seagulls.

Doug

Ghost 2501

Nov 27, 2005, 06:03 PM

the main problem i have found with espie is torque-steer in reverse, espirit WILL NOT REVERSE in a straight line

MILLERTIME

Nov 27, 2005, 11:52 PM

Full sized inboards will not back in a stright line.

jmolwitz

Dec 04, 2005, 09:57 AM

Yea we call it "prop walk" the boat just seems to walk sideways .

Ghost 2501

Mar 25, 2006, 06:29 PM

since Espirit was last run, modifications have had to be made on where the antenna runs, resulting in an external run, as opposed to under the deck, so to make things look even, I have added 2 antenna poles, the right one just has a piece of wire in it, the left hand one is carrying the Rx antenna.

Elroy68

Mar 25, 2006, 08:33 PM

Ghost 2501- Very smooth, takes no back seat to any boat.

Ghost 2501

Mar 26, 2006, 10:37 AM

cheers Elroy,

Here are two pics of her on 9.6v, she was running earlier before there pics were taken on 12v, however glitches it seems to run better on the 9.6v batteries, not sure why, it just seems to be smoother, with less jitters.

compared to her on 7,2v, Espirit seems to turn much more sharper, with more lean in the corners when running on 9.6 or 12v.

Kmot

Mar 26, 2006, 11:05 AM

12V means more motor sparking? Hence, more glitching?

Ghost 2501

Mar 26, 2006, 12:27 PM

that IS a possibility, however she was meant to run on 12v and thats what robbe recommend for her, 2x 6v LAG cells coupled to make 12v. may be worth having a look at that Kmot, thanks for the idea.

Aerominded

Mar 26, 2006, 12:49 PM

WOW! that really looks great in 'faster mode'! hope you can solve the glitch problem!

Ghost 2501

Mar 26, 2006, 01:38 PM

Aerominded, cheers, running on the 9.6's it seemed to go trouble free, i think i may know what the problem is, and i think it lies in the 12v batteries or the Y-lead that makes the parrallel hook up, as it may be bouncing around. im gonna try it again next week with the Y-lead tied up to something, see if that cures it.

I have also re-found my 40mm dia prop :D may put that on instead of the 35mm!

Munkey

Mar 28, 2006, 04:55 AM

12V means more motor sparking? Hence, more glitching?

Have you got suppresion capacitors on the motor?

Elroy68

Mar 28, 2006, 05:25 AM

Shaun covered it.

Ghost 2501

Mar 28, 2006, 12:26 PM

Monkey--> yep motor is suppressed

Elroy---> The glitches seem to affect ONLY the motor when under load on the water. 40ft range check on the bank, all seemed ok. the RX is located at the rear of the boat, on the back bulkhead, right at the top. ESC and motor are located on the bottom of the boat, ESC mounted in the gear tray. RX battery is at the rear of the boat, with the two drive batts located at the bottom of the hull. Antenna leaves the hull well away from the Motor

a pic of the layout is in my gallery

Any use?

Elroy68

Mar 28, 2006, 04:19 PM

To be honest, gallery is where? I'm using my imagination on location of the equipment.

Elroy68

Mar 28, 2006, 04:25 PM

double!

Elroy68

Mar 28, 2006, 04:42 PM

Shaun covered it.

Ghost 2501

Mar 28, 2006, 04:55 PM

here is a link to the engine bay pic

http://www.rcgroups.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=21467&sort=1&cat=500&page=2

the wires out of esc to motor can be seen running along the bottom of the hull.

the lead with the two tamiyas on is the problematic Y-lead, which is one of my suspects

rx is at the top of pic

Ghost 2501

Mar 28, 2006, 04:57 PM

elroy, i will have a look at that, :)

Shaun Hendricks

Mar 28, 2006, 05:29 PM

I had Tamiya's on my cars until they began having similar problems as you describe. Switched out for Deans plugs and glitching went away. Dean's can also handle much higher loads and are easier to solder. Crashed my EZ* once due to Tamiya's so it got changed out when I did the cars. Glitching & Tamiya plugs go hand in hand. A lot of arcing going on in there.

Elroy68

Mar 28, 2006, 06:31 PM

Green boats and Shaun have it covered.

green-boat

Mar 28, 2006, 10:08 PM

I will never use Tamyia connectors again for anything electrical. Years ago I had one of my boats out on the water when I noticed smoke pouring out of it about 50 yards out. I turned the boat back to shore and tried to bring it back against a headwind. The closer I got, the slower the boat became and the more smoke that poured out. I finally made it back and after removing the superstructure, I was greeted by what was left of a Tamyia connector and wires burnt up going back either direction along with a fuse holder. I now use Deans Ultra connectors for all my power connections. It cost me a small fortune to convert my entire fleet, batteries and chargers. They may cost a little more but I have never ever had a problem with them. Do it right the first time and it will cost you less in the long run.

Ghost 2501

Mar 29, 2006, 01:16 PM

Ghost 2501

Apr 08, 2006, 09:28 AM

One thing that has had to be replaced is the prop shaft, as somehow it was a lil bent at the input end. this may have been causing some problems as it probably would have been shaking the motor.

lets see shal we?

Ray Farina

Apr 09, 2006, 01:32 PM

If you had a twin motors in the boat with each motor on its own channel as in the real full sized boat, you would be able to back the boat in straight. This is the advantage of having twin motots in a real boat to control the side pulling of one of the engines in reverse and the oter in forward to control the side pull.

Ghost 2501

Apr 09, 2006, 05:30 PM

Ray, yep, that can be done on some kits, such as the salias by graupner, however the najade prop is in a tunnel, however having 2 props would have been ideal as espirit spat its prop off in the lake and drifted out to the island that is in the lake, however she was retrieved when the wind blew her back onto the main shore AFTER i had waded in to make an unsuccessful attempt to get her, and 2 fishermen tried to hook a line onto it.

LESSON LEARNED: ALWAYS ENSURE PROP IS TIGHT ON THE SHAFT BEFORE SAILING!!!!

Aerominded

Apr 09, 2006, 11:50 PM

D'oh!!! :eek: Bummer! Lesson 2: Make sure you know where the slightly submerged rocks in your pond are so that you don't run over them with your brass prop that is spinning at 10K RPM!!!! Makes for the same result, take my word for it!!! :o ;)

Ghost 2501

Apr 10, 2006, 02:13 PM

Aerominded, yep I did that too on one lake i was unfamilar with!!!!! (bent the rudder too at the same time!)

Ghost 2501

Apr 10, 2006, 06:15 PM

whilst I was fliking through, compare the example of the najade with a real sunseeker,

separated at birth?????

Aerominded

Apr 10, 2006, 08:23 PM

Really looks like an accurate model!!! :) NICE!!!

It's amazing how well a rock can fold up brass prop blades, isn't it? ;)

Kmot

Apr 11, 2006, 12:48 AM

Looks exact scale to me!

Ghost 2501

Apr 11, 2006, 02:25 PM

Took me by surprise as well when i found out what she was, always wanted to own a sunseeker, now I do, (well a 1/18th sc one anyway!), it was like "I have seen that before somewhere, then looked across at my boat!

The difference between the Najade and the sunseeker is the prop arrangement,
manhattan 46: 2x detroit V8 diesels @ 600 bhp,
Najade : 1x shaft propulsion.

K, apart from the front skylight, there is not a lot of difference, except najade is a right hook flybride and the manhattan is a left hook flybridge, though i think those two items are options of where you want to place them, especially on a £250,000+ cruiser.

empirebuilder

Apr 13, 2006, 03:09 PM

Not a runabout per se,
but here is my small 31 footer motor yacht...
under construction at the local boat yard :rolleyes:

Ghost 2501

Apr 13, 2006, 06:04 PM

looks sweet :) when the launching?

empirebuilder

Apr 13, 2006, 07:06 PM

Ghost,
If you are referring to my launch, very tough to see as the boat has been in drydock for months now :eek:

Shaun Hendricks

Apr 13, 2006, 07:55 PM

Isn't that typical for a boat? :D

Ghost 2501

Apr 14, 2006, 11:04 AM

Shaun, Espirit took a while, then all of a sudden, it all seemed to come together, her maiden was in 2004 in a thunderstorm :) i was under the bridge and the boat was ran well. it was a another 3 months after the launching that i painted her.

Ghost 2501

Apr 16, 2006, 12:52 PM

Aero, new 4 bladed, YES 4 BLADED propeller on her now, just done a test run to make sure its ok, and on 9,6v it wants to empty the bath, was having problems JUST HOLDING THE MODEL AGAINST HER MOTOR! so she is going to FLY again, so for now she will be pulled back on the throttle, she is going to probably be faster on 9.6 with her new 40/4 prop than she was with the 12v with a 35/3.

50A esc was getting a tad warm, and the rudders were shaking, though I believe that to be because of the wash from the propeller stirring up the water so much that hydrodynamics were acting on the rudders, causing them to shake

Aerominded

Apr 16, 2006, 12:59 PM

Aw man, that sounds like it will really fly!!! :) Pictures when you get it to the pond! :)

Ghost 2501

Apr 16, 2006, 01:01 PM

Aero dont worry :)
i am going to get her running right first, making sure that there are no issues with her and then im going to slowly work her pace up,

Ghost 2501

Apr 25, 2006, 05:55 PM

Aero, got the 4 bladed prop on, and the boat in the water, running on 9,6, NO JITTERS, just plenty of power, and tooooooooo much torque, as she nearly flipped on some occasions, rolling out, though thankfully she didnt tip over

Aerominded

Apr 25, 2006, 06:13 PM

Sounds great! you can always throttle back in the turns and roll the power on smoothly straight ahead! :) Are you seeing good run times?

Ghost 2501

Apr 25, 2006, 06:15 PM

not bad concidering 2x 1900mah cads

ive ordered 3300s hydrides

Ghost 2501

Apr 25, 2006, 06:15 PM

also aero, i have dual rates on the tx, so may bring them into call

Ghost 2501

May 03, 2006, 06:04 PM

aero, had espirit on the water, triggered dual rates to ON position using the 3300s in parri, so thats a 6600 :D ran smoothly without any nasties

Aerominded

May 03, 2006, 09:18 PM

Sounds great Ghost! :)

Ghost 2501

May 04, 2006, 12:27 PM

btw, I also filled the entire bow space with polystyrene packing foam, just in case!

Shaun Hendricks

May 04, 2006, 03:18 PM

You can 'compartmentalize' the boat with some thin cardboard and pour in floatation foam (small kits available from just about any boat store/site) and it will conform to the space you have compartmented off. Remove the cardboard (or cardstock paper) and you now have cool, custom fit, positive floatation areas of your boat! I've seen kits as small as a pint of each chemical. I don't think any are reactive with plastic but you should probably test first.